


Give-up-itis and Undertale

by ArgentDandelion



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Determination (Undertale), Gen, Mild Angst, Nonfiction, Psychology, Weird Biology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-19 23:17:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19982191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentDandelion/pseuds/ArgentDandelion
Summary: Explains how the real medical condition of give-up-itis strongly resembles the idea that monsters can become "fallen down" and die from a lack of hope. (or "HoPe": HP)





	Give-up-itis and Undertale

“Hope” is a recurring theme in _Undertale_ : monsters often bring it up, either by itself or in the phrase “hopes and dreams”. Contrasted with this is the idea of “giving up”: in some of the worst endings, people lose hope, and “give up”.

Adding to the theme of hope and giving up is the fan idea that HP, like LOVE/LV and EXP, is an acronym that stands for “HoPe” just as awkwardly as “LOVE” stands for “Level Of ViolencE”. Most evidence for this hinges on Sans [supposedly](https://undertale-science.tumblr.com/post/137736151113/does-sans-actually-have-1-hp-they-say-hes-the) [having](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.deviantart.com%2Fmdchan%2Fart%2FUndertale-Theory-1-HP-Wonder-594644299&t=MDgxODdlM2ZjMDU2MzY5MjRiNjQ4MjE0YjExYWM2YzZhZDUxMTllZCxzQXBwb21yQQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F180323780043%2Fgive-up-itis-and-undertale&m=1) just 1 HP, and seeming to have very little hope as of the Genocide Route battle. A subset of this argument is that monsters “fall down” (enter a coma-like state preceding death) when their HP/HoPe is very low, with Sans’ lethargic and sleepy ways used as evidence for this.

 **2\. Give-up-itis**

The idea monsters can die of no external cause but merely of losing hope parallels a real medical condition: “give-up-itis”. The poorly understood condition is marked by when a person “develops extreme apathy, gives up hope, relinquishes the will to live and dies, despite the lack of an obvious physical cause.” Give-up-itis often happens to prisoners of war and survivors of shipwrecks or plane crashes.

 **3\. Relation Between Them**

Though the idea HP equals hope and fallen down monsters have no hope is just [speculation](http://nochocolate.tumblr.com/post/144369501165/a-curious-inquiry-as-i-was-sitting-and-thinking), if it’s anything like give-up-itis, it makes sense. People with give-up-itis are hopeless: they are swallowed up in despair and helplessness. Those in the later stages are practically comatose: they lie down and become unresponsive, like monsters in the fallen down state apparently are. (see True Lab Entry #6) After a while in these states[1](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/180323780043/give-up-itis-and-undertale#fn:1), they die.

Incidentally, monsters’ status is something like prisoners of war. Humans sealed monsters underground after winning the war, and though the Underground seems big (some parts are inaccessible), it’s far smaller than the Surface. Even monsters who never fought in the war live and die without ever seeing sunlight, and over the course of their lives they may think of the Underground as a prison.

 **4\. What is Determination?**

So why does Determination (customarily capitalized when referring to the substance) cure the fallen down state?

Though it’s unclear how give-up-itis kills people, the symptoms parallel impairment in a certain brain circuit and “voodoo death”. The latter has multiple possible explanations, but generally it happens when people think they can’t escape a terrifying fate (e.g., a deadly curse). Sheer terror overloads the body with stress hormones, making it collapse, like an evil version of a placebo effect.

A Snowdin library book says monsters are “attuned to their SOULs”. It’s possible monsters’ SOULs are equivalent to human brains, in that they control some body functions. Therefore, the sheer lack of hope may lead to lowered body and mental health, like in voodoo death.

Determination (the power, not the substance) is defined as: “The will to keep living… The resolve to change fate.” Those who persist, who endure, in the face of the hopelessness of being a prisoner of war could reasonably be called “determined.” It’s possible injecting Determination into monsters’ bodies works like a sort of cross-species neurochemical transplant. The state of “fallen down” is reversed, like how the drug L-dopa (temporarily) awoke people from comas.[2](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/180323780043/give-up-itis-and-undertale#fn:2)

It’s unknown how Undyne has Determination; some speculate she produces small amounts naturally. If so, perhaps monsters can withstand small amounts of Determination, and the Amalgamates happened only because Alphys injected far too much. If Determination injection is anything like cross-species blood injections and transplants, of course serious effects would happen.

* * *

  1. It’s unclear how long the fallen down state lasts, though [Mettaton’s diary](http://nochocolate.tumblr.com/post/151991698707/i-have-heard-many-different-people-talking-lately) suggests it can last a while. [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/180323780043/give-up-itis-and-undertale#fnref:1)

  2. For more detail, see the real-life background for the film _Awakenings_. (This [article](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fscience%2F2006%2Fsep%2F12%2Fhealth.healthandwellbeing&t=MjhiZDdmN2U2NTMwMWJlYmNhNzJjYzI1MTRiMGU0NGJhMTA0MTdmMyxzQXBwb21yQQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F180323780043%2Fgive-up-itis-and-undertale&m=1) is also related) [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/180323780043/give-up-itis-and-undertale#fnref:2)





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